By Ian S Palmer
Two former world champs will be meeting at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City this weekend when Yuriorkis Gamboa of Cuba takes on Jason Sosa of Camden, New Jersey this Saturday, November 25th. The 10-round super featherweight fight can be seen live on HBO in North America while fans in the UK can catch the action on Sky Sports. Gamboa last fought in Augusts when he beat Alexis Reyes by a 10-round majority decision. Sosa’s last contest took place in April when he was stopped after the ninth round by WBO Champion Vasyl Lomachenko.
The 36-year-old Gamboa enters the fight with an impressive record of 27-2 along with 17 Kos. His first career loss was a ninth-round TKO to Terence Crawford in a WBO World Lightweight Title fight in June of 2014. His second defeat was to Robinson Castellanos this May when he was stopped after the seventh round. He just managed to beat Reyes in August after having three points deducted in the fight and he appears to be on the downside of his career now.
Gamboa still has has quick hands though, but still doesn’t let them go nearly enough and has just one stoppage in his last nine outings. Gamboa, who now fights out of Miami, Florida, stands just over 5-feet-5-inches tall with a 65-inch reach. He’s boxed 173 rounds since turning pro and has pretty good power with a current knockout ratio of 59 per cent. Gamboa had an excellent amateur career with 250 bouts and won a gold medal for Cuba as a flyweight at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
In some fans’ eyes Gamboa has somewhat wasted his opportunity at an excellent pro career due to his constant periods of inactivity even though he’s held a featherweight world title and interim lightweight belt and has wins over Orlando Salido, Daniel Ponce De Leon, Jorge Solis, and Jonathan Victor Barros. His chin has let him down lately and he just doesn’t seem to be the fighter he once was. Gamboa’s not a youngster anymore and will have his hands full with the busy Sosa.
The 29-year-old Sosa was the WBA Super Featherweight Champion, but the WBA stripped him of the title for taking the bout against Lomachenko in April. Sosa enters the bout with an impressive record of 20-2-4 with 15 Kos. He stands 5-feet-5-inches tall with a wingspan of 67 inches. Sosa has pretty good power with a current knockout percentage of 58 per cent and he’s boxed 127 rounds since turning pro back in 2009. His other defeat came to Treysean Wiggins by first-round TKO in 2010.
He’s also had four draws and they were against Jose Ortiz in 2010, Angel Luis Ocasio twice in 2012 and Nicholas Walters in December of 2015. Sosa, who was named the Philly Fighter of the Year for 2016, has 14 knockouts in his last 15 wins and is undefeated in his last 20 outings. He won the WBA title by stopping Javier Fortuna in the seventh round in China last June and has defended it once against Smith. Sosa’s a fan-friendly aggressive fighter who has so far done performed well when stepping up in class.
Prediction…
Sosa has a lot of heart and will give his best effort on Saturday. At this stage of their careers he appears to have more upside than Gamboa and should be busy enough in the ring to earn a victory.
